Longer stills battery life

Cameras with longer battery life can take more photos before exhausting their batteries.

Special note: The measurement standard for battery life stipulates that if a camera has an internal flash, it must be used for 50% of photos taken. For this reason, comparisons of one camera with an internal flash to another without will not be comparable

800
vs
650 shots

Capture more photos

Thinner

75 mm
vs
123 mm

Thinner

Higher max flash sync

1/200
vs
1/125 sec

Reduce the effect of ambient light in flash shots

Lighter weight

810g
vs
1555g

Lighter weight

Has anti-aliasing filter

Filter
vs
No Filter

Reduces unsightly moiré in photos

Bigger JPEG buffer

98
vs
12 shots

Take more JPEG shots before waiting (burst mode)

Faster shutter

1/8000
vs
1/4000 sec

Shoot wide open in bright light

Pentax 645Z advantages over Canon 5D

Focus peaking

Peaker
vs
Non-peaker

Your camera will highlight what's in focus

Larger sensor

Medium format
vs
35mm

More sensor area. Bigger is (generally) better.

Tiltable Screen

Tiltable
vs
Fixed

Tilt the screen for shooting flexbility

Better color depth

Better color depth

Color depth refers to the number of unique colors that a sensor can faithfully capture. Cameras with better color depth will demonstrate smoother transitions from one color to the next, and avoid "banding" in areas with subtle shading. (Blue skies are an example of where you might see color banding.)

More color depth is generally better, but you'll struggle to notice a difference between two cameras with less than 1 bit of difference. Color depth above 22 bits is considered excellent.

Want to learn more? Head over to our full glossary entry on color depth

Quite bulky compared to an APS-C or full-frame DSLR; Autofocus points clustered near center of frame; Most lenses aren't weather-sealed or optimized for digital; Prone to aliasing artifacts (but so are most high-end cameras these days); Attracts a lot of attention from passers-by